Sikernesse and Fere in Troilus and Criseyde

O’Brien, Timothy D.

doi:10.1353/cr.2004.0005

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 19 publications

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“…1315), a phrase which complicates noticeably the bliss of sexual encounter. Twenty‐first‐century critics, such as Timothy O'Brien, have looked at individual words and their nuances in more detail: word ‘constellations’, for example, cluster around and modify a key term, such as ‘fere’ (fear), through homophonic association. Such studies suggest that Chaucer was painstaking in his choice of words to describe his characters' internal states.…”

Section: Troilus and Criseydementioning

confidence: 99%

The History of Emotions and Middle English Literature

Downes

McNamara

2016

Literature Compass

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Critics have long addressed questions of affect, feeling and emotional expression in Middle English literature, but only in recent years has their interest begun to take theoretical form under the rubric of the ‘history of emotions’. Current critical attitudes to the study of emotions in the past have been shaped substantially by the work of historians, whose focus on emotion in documentary sources has been influenced in turn by research in the fields of sociology, anthropology, psychology, linguistics and, increasingly, the cognitive sciences. How might existing methodologies situating emotions historically drive new approaches in Middle English literary studies? This article contends that existing analyses of Middle English literature relating to affective discourses might fruitfully be brought into conversation with new multidisciplinary forms of research into past emotions. We survey current critical trends in both the history of emotions and in Middle English literature. Case studies of two late Middle English literary texts, the anonymous Sir Orfeo and Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, show how the last fifty years of scholarship has addressed emotions in Middle English literature. We conclude by suggesting future directions that might be taken up by critics of medieval English literary texts and genres to develop further the relationship between literary studies and the history of emotions.

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Section: Troilus and Criseydementioning

confidence: 99%

The History of Emotions and Middle English Literature

Downes

McNamara

2016

Literature Compass

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Medieval English Texts and Affects: Narratives as Tools for Feeling

Harbus

2017

The Palgrave Handbook of Affect Studies and Textual Criticism

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“Thus Gan He Make a Mirour of His Mynde”: Fragmented Memories and Anxious Desire in Troilus and Criseyde

Lim

2008

Neophilologus

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This article argues that the Troilus's relationship with Criseyde is fraught with anxious desire. By referencing medieval theories of the mind and Kleinian psychoanalytic theory, it shows that the manner in which Troilus memorializes his desire for Criseyde in the books I to III of the poem has a direct impact on the way he experiences her loss in book V. Throughout the poem, anxiety is the definitive characteristic of Troilus's desire. It emerges when he first encounters an uncontrollable desire and when the consummation of his desire is delayed. It is this anxious engendering of desire, and not loss per se, that causes the feelings of persecution and victimization in Troilus when he loses Criseyde at the end of the poem.Keywords Chaucer Á Troilus Á Melanie Klein Á Anxiety Á Desire Á Memory Robert Henryson, who in writing The Testament of Cresseid became an early critic of Chaucer, was disappointed enough with the virtual absence of moral judgment on Criseyde in Troilus and Criseyde to re-imagine her fate. At the same time, his continuation also re-works the picture of Troilus that we get from Chaucer's poem. Instead of the paranoid and anxious lover who haunts the verses of Book V,

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Sikernesse and Fere in Troilus and Criseyde

Cited by 4 publications

References 19 publications

The History of Emotions and Middle English Literature

The History of Emotions and Middle English Literature

Medieval English Texts and Affects: Narratives as Tools for Feeling

“Thus Gan He Make a Mirour of His Mynde”: Fragmented Memories and Anxious Desire in Troilus and Criseyde

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